Over the past two-and-a-half years, supply chain disruption has redefined the traditional transportation sector. No one would have ever imagined that it could take as long as six months to receive a parcel that was purchased online or ordered from an authorized store. To ensure the smooth and timely delivery of goods, we rely not only on sea transport providers, but also container terminals, warehouse storage, landside distributors, and the ship’s crew — a key element. We can hardly deny that the supply chain has become a miniature version of the global economy, faithfully reflecting its ups and downs rather than simply delivering goods.
Due to increasing energy prices caused by geographical tension in Feb. 2022, along with other factors such as unstable food supply and abnormal weather, inflation is now a major global issue. An increasing number of pessimistic analyses cast a darker shadow on the 2023-24 economic outlook, which significantly affects freight levels and has the shape of the shipping industry reverting back to its pre-pandemic version. The orderbook of new ships in the container sector — which is showing a 28 percent increase in new construction by 2025 — is another issue. However, the IMO EEXI/CII regulation is estimated to countervail 5 to 15% of the global tonnage based on prevailing service routes and the ship age spread. Over-tonnage may not be as disturbing as inflation-led recession.
Over the decades, marine ships have been regarded as one of the sources of pollution linked to global warming. With more stringent rules on ship emissions and initiatives on reducing ship pollutants being taken to improve this situation, the shipping sector today is, to some extent, leading the way in developing innovative solutions on alternative energies that would produce fewer harmful substances.